2025 Birthday Reflections, (5/20/2025)

2025 Birthday Reflections

A Past Revisited, Connecting the Dots, part 3

Following the post-war period, my parents faced the challenge of establishing a family and raising children. The manner in which my parents navigated this challenge, which I later referred to as the “family line,” has significantly contributed to my understanding of progressive thought and activism. It has also fueled my passionate engagement in social movements for change and nationalist causes, both as a historian and a popular educator.

At home, from an early age, I often heard my father use the Kapampangan word "dagisot" to assure my siblings of the “family line.” The word stuck with me because it was often used by my father when laying down the vision for our family, which was to ensure that all his children received a college education.

This was the "family line," because both my mother and father grew up in economically disadvantaged circumstances within tenanted rice lands where education was neither highly valued nor readily accessible. My mother reached only primary education, while my father pursued post-secondary education but did not complete a degree to secure a well-paying job.

To secure livelihood opportunities to support their expanding family, they decided to relocate closer to the town center of San Fernando, the capital city of Pampanga, a province in Central Luzon, Philippines.

At that time, Central Luzon was known as the rice granary of the country. My maternal grandparents were rice farmers working on tenanted lands. Meanwhile, on my father's side, my uncles and aunties were engaged in various occupations such as rice farming, driving horse-drawn carriages, selling goods, running food stalls, and working as clerks at the municipal office.

As children of a tenant farmer, our maternal grandfather, had his children’s family houses built close to each other on non-farmland provided by the landlord to their tenant. We were part of one of the largest clans in Tenejero, Del Pilar. Our lives were influenced by the changing structures, traditions, and culture of a rural rice farming community and the neighboring area where migrant rural workers were settling in Pampanga’s capital town, San Fernando.

Since Tenejero is a short walking distance from the town center, many rural residents and people from nearby barrios and distant areas moved there, seeking employment and establishing makeshift houses on my grandparents’ tenanted lands. Most of these individuals found work as vendors, shoe shiners, butcher assistants, service workers, and hospitality staff in nearby establishments such as cabarets and beer gardens. Tenejero became known for its growing population of newcomers and informal settlers. This migration trend mirrored the post-war movement of rural and agrarian folks to towns and urban centers in search of employment opportunities.

My dedicated parents were well-liked, highly respected, and greatly admired in our neighborhood. Despite their lack of formal education, my father secured a well-paying position as an accounting clerk in the provincial government's treasury office, while my mother adeptly managed our family buy-and-sell business and sari-sari store.

When my elder sisters, Ate Nats and Ate Belle, graduated from Pampanga High School, my father made the decision to enroll them at the prestigious University of the East in Manila. This decision was unprecedented in our neighborhood and even among our relatives. “Why are you investing in your daughters?” our neighbors questioned my father, “they will just get married and leave you!” Such views were common in rural communities and transitional neighborhoods like Tenejero Del Pilar.

Many regarded my father's decision to relocate our family from Tenejero to Manila as unwise. We moved into a small apartment in Economia Street, located near the university where my sisters were attending their studies. This arrangement was deemed preferable to having my sisters reside in a dormitory or boarding house. My father was resolute and dedicated to supporting my sisters' higher education. Ate Nats pursued a Bachelor of Science in Education while Ate Belle studied a Bachelor of Arts in Commerce, majoring in Accounting.

In 1962, our family relocated to Manila. That was the year I was eligible to start first grade in public school. However, my father chose not to enroll me and my brother Nelson in school in Manila.

I discovered this detail in 2020 during the height of the pandemic when I had the chance to discuss our family history with Ate Belle during our regular virtual remote communications.

My father postponed my entry into the school system in favor of prioritizing college education for my two elder sisters. This decision reflected his priorities for our family and underscored the essence of 'dagisot' in our family's values.

This family line and dagisot have significant implications for my sibling's personal journey. As for myself, it has profoundly influenced my existence, life path, and philosophy, which is encapsulated in the principle of LOST: Living Life Open, Sincere, and True.

A life well-lived over seventy years is a narrative worth preserving for future generations. At seventy, one does not merely count the years; instead, one shares blessings and wisdom, valuing each moment.

To be continued… Abangan ang susunod na kabanata…

May 20,2025 FB